


Keep Calm and Carry On

by wheel_pen



Series: Agent and Doctor [9]
Category: The Bourne Legacy (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Spies & Secret Agents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-07
Updated: 2015-02-07
Packaged: 2018-03-10 21:27:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3304055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheel_pen/pseuds/wheel_pen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rachel confronts Karl about why he blew off an appointment with her, and the situation escalates when Jeremy gets worried and jumps in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keep Calm and Carry On

Rachel was walking down the hall towards her office when she spotted Karl up ahead, which was somewhat unusual as the agents weren’t normally in the medical zone without a distinct purpose. “Hey, Karl!” she called to get his attention. The large blond man glanced back at her, then continued walking away.

Rachel was not deterred, however. “Karl, wait up,” she told him. He was trained to obey orders, so he stopped in the middle of the hall; but he wasn’t trained to like it, so he didn’t turn around as he waited for Rachel to catch up and walk around in front of him.

“Hi, Karl,” she opened hopefully.

“Dr. Ward.” He glanced at her, then his eyes went over her shoulder like a good soldier.

“Where are you headed, Karl?” Rachel inquired.

“The gym.”

Which was not in this section. “And where are you coming from?”

“The physical therapy room.”

Which _was_ , so that explained his presence here. “Why didn’t you come to see me this morning, Karl?” Rachel asked, finally getting to the point. Not that she’d been too upset by his absence—she’d been so busy doing paperwork, she’d forgotten she even _had_ an appointment, until Jenny asked her if she wanted Karl summoned. But it wasn’t like the agents to change the schedule they’d been given.

Karl’s eyes flickered down at her, then back up. “My injuries have healed,” he reminded her. “I no longer require your attention.”

“Come on, Karl, that’s a pretty lame excuse,” Rachel accused, unimpressed. “You’re still supposed to see me every day, even though you’ve been cleared for duty again.” He didn’t respond, merely continued staring straight ahead. “You got a new mission, didn’t you, Karl?” Rachel guessed suddenly. Another brief glance at her seemed to confirm this. “I thought so. You were probably in the library or at the range doing mission research and you didn’t want to leave to come see _me_. Am I right?”

Karl shifted uncomfortably, in a subtle way, and Rachel knew she’d hit the nail on the head. Everyone liked to pretend that the agents were emotionless robots, sometimes even the agents themselves; but deep down they were still _interested_ in things, still _excited_ by them—they weren’t just carrying out missions like soulless automatons. And just like anyone else, sometimes they got a little carried away by their activities.

Rachel smiled a little at him. “Well, I understand,” she assured him. “You probably have a lot of work to do in preparation.”

“Yes.”

“But,” she added firmly, “I want you in my office at your usual time tomorrow morning. No more blowing me off.”

She could see Karl was getting the tiniest bit peeved. “That practice is inefficient,” he protested.

Now _Rachel_ was starting to get a bit peeved. “Well tough beans, pal,” she told him. “That’s the rule, so stick a bookmark in it for ten minutes while I look you over.”

Karl made eye contact with her and held it, his gaze narrowing slightly. Rachel didn’t look away. It wasn’t that she expected mindless obedience, but in this case the rule actually made sense—Karl not being the type to complain if something bothered him, Rachel found it useful to check him out and quiz him every day, to catch problems while they were still minor. It was kind of difficult to explain that reasoning to Karl himself, though. But she wasn’t going to budge on this one.

“Dr. Ward?” Rachel let Karl win the staring contest when she turned to see Jeremy come up behind her. He was watching Karl warily, and when Rachel glanced back at the blond, she saw _him_ watching Jeremy the same way.

Well, this could be bad. There was a reason they usually didn’t let the agents interact with each other.

“Everything’s fine, Jeremy,” Rachel assured him. “Karl and I were just making an appointment for tomorrow. Right, Karl?” she said pointedly.

In response, Karl growled softly—not in a mean way, Rachel felt, more out of frustration. Jeremy growled back, though, and they both inched towards each other.

“Hey, cut it out,” Rachel ordered, one hand on each chest. She tried to push them a little farther apart, but she might as well have been pushing on two brick walls. “Just relax, there’s nothing to get worked up about.” She had a feeling her words were falling on deaf ears. “Karl. Jeremy. Chill. Back away.” With some effort she got them to retreat marginally. “Karl, you can go on to the gym, we’ll talk tomorrow, okay?” She could feel the tension in their muscles under her hands but sensed they were on the verge of backing down.

And then she heard the pounding of multiple heavy footfalls in the hallway.

“Oh great,” Rachel sighed. “ _Now_ look what you’ve done.” Someone monitoring them, or maybe someone walking by, had reported their interaction as ‘hostile’ and now the guards were coming.

“It’s Karl’s fault,” Jeremy judged, and Karl gave him a slight sneer.

The footsteps rounded a corner and came into view. “Oh, s—t,” Rachel commented when she saw they belonged to _eight_ guards, all fully decked out in riot gear and sporting tranquilizer guns. “Okay, don’t freak, just let me handle it,” Rachel ordered the two agents, now using her arms to push them back against the wall behind her. “Hey, guys, everything’s cool, there’s nothing wrong here,” Rachel announced, pitching her voice towards the guards.

They stopped in formation just a few feet away, two rows of four each, all with guns aimed precisely at Rachel and the two agents. Rachel pressed further back against the two men, her heart really starting to pound.

“Dr. Ward doesn’t like guns pointed at her,” Jeremy offered, but Rachel shushed him—who knew what simple action the guards would choose to interpret as aggressive? She vividly remembered Jeremy’s injuries after the guards had disciplined him once.

“Everything’s fine, really,” Rachel repeated forcefully.

“Dr. Ward, please step aside,” one of the guards barked.

“Well—no,” Rachel refused. “Look, this is ridiculous. I mean, I get it, you’re investigating, it probably didn’t look great on a monitor somewhere, but I’m telling you, everything is fine. You can go now.”

The head guard—second from the left in the front row, Rachel decided—thought for a second, then demanded, “Code in. Challenge: sparrowhawk.”

“Oh, s—t,” Rachel repeated in frustration as her mind blanked.

“Dr. Ward doesn’t think very well with guns pointed at her,” Jeremy explained again.

“Response if under duress is harlequin,” Karl told her.

“I am not under duress!” Rachel snapped, sounding very much under duress. “What’s the other one? It’s something to do with ice cream—“

“Blizzard,” Jeremy supplied helpfully.

“Blizzard, there you go,” Rachel repeated. She nodded at the guards.

“Dr. Ward, please step aside,” the guard told her again.

And now Rachel was really getting angry. “Okay, I can see why that wasn’t convincing,” she allowed, “but it’s not my fault the agents know all the code words, too. That’s _really_ kind of a stupid system. But I am _telling you_ —“

“Dr. Ward,” Jeremy said in a soft voice, tugging lightly on the back of her lab coat, “you have to remain calm.” He sounded mildly concerned.

“Ma’am, please step—“

“No, I am _not_ going to step aside,” Rachel snapped. “Are you _actually_ gonna tranq them, when they are standing here doing _nothing_? Are those your orders? Is that how this works?” Her tone was deeply sarcastic.

“Dr. Ward, maybe you should—“

“Shut it, Karl,” she ordered him, and he did. “I’m not moving,” she reiterated to the guards. “So you either stand down, or you tranq all three of us.”

“I don’t—I don’t want you to get tranq’d, Dr. Ward,” Jeremy said worriedly, his hand creeping up to hold hers.

“You would find it very unpleasant,” Karl added flatly.

“Well it’s not up to _me_ , is it?” Rachel challenged, looking several of the guards in the eye.

There was a very long pause. At least, it felt long to Rachel. “Stand down,” the head guard decided, and relief flooded through her as the guards lifted their guns, backed away, and left.

“Good G-d, the _stress_ at this job,” Rachel muttered.

“Dr. Ward, you have to be more careful,” Jeremy admonished her. He still hadn’t let go of her hand or the back of her lab coat.

“It’s possible one of the tranquilizer darts would have killed her,” Karl commented to him.

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Jeremy admitted with slight alarm. “They were made for people with enhanced metabolisms.”

“Obviously,” replied Karl with mild sarcasm. Jeremy growled at him and pulled Rachel closer with an arm around her waist.

“Please, let’s not start this again,” Rachel told them, hoping Jeremy’s impromptu hug didn’t set off any new alarms either. “Karl, I’m sorry I snapped at you.” He gazed at her steadily. “I know you were just trying to help. I was just stressed.”

“Dr. Ward doesn’t like guns—“

“You said that already,” Karl interrupted Jeremy. If the agents were the type for name calling, Rachel suspected Karl would be doing so right now.

“Okay,” she said with finality. “Karl, tomorrow morning, eleven AM or I will hunt you down. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Dr. Ward,” Karl conceded. “I’ll be there.”

“Thank you,” she told him. “You can go.” Karl threw one more sneering look at Jeremy, then walked away.

“Okay, let go,” she instructed Jeremy, pulling away from him slightly.

He kept hold of her hand. “You scared me,” he accused.

“I just got upset,” Rachel sighed. “I mean, okay, you gotta be vigilant and all, but _eight guards_? Really? For just the two of you? When you wouldn’t have fought back? That’s excessive.”

“Are you going back to your office?” he asked as they walked down the hall.

“Yes. Why? What were you doing here anyway?” Rachel finally thought to ask.

“I saw you with Karl and thought you might need help,” Jeremy replied. “Can I come with you to your office and stay there for a while?”

“Yeah, sure,” Rachel allowed, tired of arguing with people whose brains operated differently from hers. Which was apparently everyone.

**

Rachel tried not to squirm as she sat in front of directors Quarles and Delu in the large office. Quarles leafed through her report ostentatiously while Delu gave her the occasional troubled but encouraging smile, and Rachel’s gaze couldn’t help drifting towards the window with its view of the city skyline—most of the windows she saw around her were fake, frosted glass with sunlamps behind them for effect.

“So, Dr. Ward,” Quarles began finally, and Rachel snapped back to alertness. “Let’s talk about the incident yesterday. I’ve read your report, but why don’t you walk me through it?”

It was impossible to tell from his tone what he thought about it, but Rachel assumed she wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t apprehensive. “Well, sir, I think really it was an overreaction on the part of the guards. Karl and Jeremy were perfectly calm, there’s—there’s no reason to be concerned about them,” she suggested carefully.

“Yes, you emphasized that in your report,” Quarles noted. “I don’t think any kind of disciplinary action is necessary for them.” He glanced at Delu, who nodded in agreement.

Rachel let out the breath she’d been holding. “Good. I was worried about that,” she admitted.

“Why don’t you describe the incident from the beginning, Doctor?” Quarles reiterated.

“Well, I was walking back to my office,” Rachel started, “and I happened to see Karl. I think he was leaving the physical therapy room. I stopped him to ask why he’d missed our appointment that morning.”

“And what reason did he give?” the Director quizzed.

“He’d gotten a new mission and was really excited about preparing for it,” Rachel answered, “and basically he’d blown me off to do that, because he thought he was fine. Physically, I mean. All his injuries had healed.”

“He told you that?” Delu asked, with healthy skepticism.

“Well, I’m paraphrasing,” Rachel admitted. “But anyway, I told him he better not do that again, and he should be at his appointment tomorrow morning like usual. Er, today,” she corrected.

“And was he?” Delu checked.

Of course they already knew he was. “Yep, Little Miss Mary Sunshine at eleven sharp,” Rachel replied, trying to keep things light-hearted.

Quarles gave her a look that suggested levity was not really required. “But when you first told him that yesterday, how did he respond?”

“Well, Karl can be a little… recalcitrant sometimes,” Rachel hedged, “about things he thinks are unnecessary or inefficient. So we went back and forth on it a few times.”

“He refused to obey your orders?” Delu asked with some concern.

“Oh, I wouldn’t go that far,” Rachel assured him.

“And it was at this point that the conversation… escalated?” Quarles commented leadingly.

“I don’t think it escalated, sir,” Rachel downplayed. “It was just a conversation.” They both gave her skeptical looks. “Well, maybe when Jeremy showed up, things got a little tense,” she allowed.

“Ah, yes, Jeremy,” Quarles said with great significance. “What was Jeremy doing in the medical zone, Doctor?”

Rachel blinked in surprise. “I’m not sure,” she finally said. “I guess I didn’t ask him. But, I mean, he was _not_ being… hostile,” she insisted. “He was just concerned.”

“Concerned,” Quarles repeated flatly. “So, Jeremy, an agent, saw you and another agent, and became _concerned_ , but _you_ don’t think Karl was being hostile towards you.”

Rachel got the sense he was looking for flaws in her reasoning. Well, never would she claim to be perfect, but she was confident she’d made the right call. “Well, Jeremy is a little… cautious,” she tried to explain. “He worries about things.”

“He worries about _you_ ,” Delu pointed out.

Rachel wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be good or bad. “Also he and Karl don’t really get along,” she added. “But anyway, Jeremy came to check on me, and, yeah, they got a little growly, you know, it’s just this thing they do—“

“At one point you were attempting to physically separate them?” Quarles queried. His tone was one of disapproval.

“Um, well, I guess,” Rachel hedged. “Not really. I mean, I couldn’t, right? If they were really mad at each other. They were just posturing. And then Karl was just about to walk away,” she went on quickly, “when the guards showed up.”

“The guards,” Quarles nodded. “Yes, a witness in the vicinity called in an alarm. They also felt the situation was hostile.”

“Well, I don’t blame them, sir,” Rachel admitted frankly, “and I don’t blame the guards for coming to investigate, I mean, that’s what they have to do, right—“

“Yes,” Quarles confirmed dryly.

“—but once they got there, and I _explained_ that I had the situation under control,” Rachel went on firmly, “well, that’s when I think it really started to go wrong. Because for whatever reason they didn’t believe me.”

Quarles looked at her steadily. “You didn’t exactly pass the code test,” he understated.

“Um, yes, sir,” she agreed reluctantly. She was still kind of embarrassed about that. “I _do_ memorize the words every week, sir, but I just don’t really—“

“You get flustered when someone’s pointing a gun at you,” Quarles supplied. She couldn’t tell if he found that understandable or not.

“Yes, sir,” she confirmed. “It _did_ come up in my interview profile—“ And they’d hired her anyway. “But, well, if you don’t mind me saying so, sir, what’s the point of having a code word for duress, if everyone there knows it means ‘I’m under duress’? Not that I was,” she added quickly. “But, shouldn’t there be words that _just_ the staff and guards know?”

“You want _more_ words to memorize?” Quarles asked dryly. That was _definitely_ not understanding.

“Maybe we could divide the list in half,” Rachel said, conceding his point. More code words to memorize would likely be more code words to forget when she faced the barrel of a gun. She honestly hadn’t realized it was going to be that big of a hindrance in her life. “Um, but anyway,” she continued, “I thought I made it clear that everything was fine, and the guards just kept pointing the tranquilizer guns at all of us and ordering me to step aside. And I just felt like if I stepped aside, Karl and Jeremy were going to get hurt, and they didn’t deserve that because they were just standing there quietly.”

Quarles glanced at Delu, then back at Rachel. “You were worried _they_ would get hurt.”

Rachel hesitated. “I don’t mean any disrespect to the guards in general,” she qualified. “All the ones I know are really nice. But—“ She finally decided she just had to say it. “I didn’t get the sense they were just going to tranq Karl and Jeremy, and patiently wait for them to lay down and pass out.”

“You were worried the guards would physically assault Karl and Jeremy?” Delu rephrased.

“Yes,” Rachel confirmed. “It’s happened before—“

“Yes, Jeremy and Dr. Zhu a while ago,” Quarles recalled.

Rachel nodded slowly. “I’m sure, out in the field, Karl and Jeremy could take on eight armed guards easily—“

“Each,” Quarles emphasized.

“—but here they’re supposed to be calm, to not fight back,” Rachel explained, which of course they knew. “And I understand the reason for that, but I think in this situation, especially with the tranquilizer, it would have been grossly unfair and inappropriate. I was worried the guards would just use it as an excuse to get their kicks in, on two people who were basically helpless.”

Quarles turned in his chair to share a look with Delu; they were silent for a long moment. “You were protecting Jeremy and Karl from the guards,” Quarles finally summarized.

“Well—yes, sir,” Rachel agreed. “They hadn’t done anything.”

“You weren’t worried about the guards… hurting _you_?” Delu asked delicately. “I mean, _accidentally_ getting hit with a tranquilizer dart, or just… being in the middle should the situation escalate physically.”

“Well, I hope it’s not policy to tranq staff,” Rachel responded bluntly. “I looked that stuff they use up later and Karl was right, at the very least that dosage would’ve put me in a coma. And, well, not that I was thinking about it at the time really, but I’m sure Jeremy would’ve pulled me clear or something if a fight broke out,” she went on. “He was trying to do that even when the guards were there. The whole thing was very upsetting for him,” she added indignantly. “I couldn’t get him out of my office for the rest of the afternoon. He was still talking about it when I saw him this morning.”

“He worries about things,” Quarles repeated dryly.

“Well—quietly,” Rachel conceded. “Karl had been thinking about it, too.”

“I think you told Karl to ‘shut it’ at one point, right?” Delu recalled seriously.

“Yes, sir,” Rachel admitted, humbly. “It was rude, and I apologized to him for it later.” Eyebrows shot up at this statement. “I was just worried that anything he or Jeremy said or did could be misinterpreted by the guards, and the whole thing could go south in a second.”

“But finally you managed to convince the guards to leave,” Quarles prompted. “What do you think finally did that?”

“I think I was just holding my ground, and I didn’t take the obvious opportunities to get away,” Rachel speculated. “Um, with some of the agents you have to be really firm and confident,” she went on when they seemed to want more. “I don’t want to call it a dominance thing, but… Obviously I can’t take them physically so it becomes kind of a mental thing.” She had no idea if this was making sense or not, and their expressions were not at all helpful.

“Mmm,” Quarles remarked vaguely. “And after the guards left?”

“I reiterated to Karl that he should keep his appointment with me tomorrow morning, er, today,” Rachel corrected, “and he agreed. And then he left. And then Jeremy came back to my office and exercised a lot while I did paperwork. It’s a stress management technique. For Jeremy, I mean.” Although there was something oddly soothing about doing paperwork as well.

Quarles nodded thoughtfully, then glanced at Delu, who also nodded thoughtfully. “Did you watch the security footage of the incident, Doctor?” Quarles questioned.

“No,” Rachel admitted. “I don’t really like watching myself on video. It’s… weird. Do you think I should?” she asked, trying to sound more professional.

“Well, it’s available if you want to,” Quarles replied dismissively. “I think that’s it, Doctor. Thank you for coming in.”

Rachel stood, then paused before leaving. “Sir, do you think I could’ve handled it better?” she asked curiously. It didn’t _seem_ like they were about to fire her, but they really hadn’t given much feedback.

Quarles shrugged. Delu shrugged. “No one was injured or detained,” Quarles pointed out. “You had the situation in hand and calmed things down. I think that’s a good outcome.”

“Oh yes, very good,” Delu agreed, more positively. “Any time a conflict ends with no one getting hurt, that’s the best you can ask for.”

Rachel nodded, still fearing she was missing something. “Thank you, sirs,” she finally said, and left.

The door shut behind her with a click and Quarles turned to Delu with a questioning expression. The other man smirked and shook his head. “Run the tape,” he suggested, gesturing towards the computer. “I want to see the part where she tells Lund to ‘shut it’ again. I just wish we could see the guards’ expressions better.”

“Well, you heard Mbita’s report,” Quarles reminded him. “He was floored. Didn’t know which one of them was crazier.”

“She was protecting them,” Delu recalled, shaking his head. “That’s remarkable. You can see that Green and Lund are shocked by it. In their way,” he amended. “Of course with Green—“ They’d seen that before, between him and Dr. Ward. “It’s quite a rapport she’s developing with him.”

“Yes, but is that a good thing?” Quarles asked darkly.


End file.
